Best way to get people to join a small community?

[coreyman]

I started a small community at http://freedomain.club/ to offer free domains to people. I gave one domain away. What I'm confused about is why everyone just all of the sudden stopped posting? I was going to start offering free web hosting too. (I know the design and advertisements aren't a+ yet.)

I feel that if I give away free domains to people for just joining, that noone will post anything. So I'm stuck as to what I should do to get new people to join. I tried google adwords and that wasn't getting enough for how much I was having to spend either.

 

[drmike]

Well I'll start by saying too many steps.

Hit main promo screen, then to agreement page, then to signup.

The signup page is 8 questions.... The last one about number of US presidents, well, that will have folks doinking in Google/similar search to determine.   A simple ### CAPTCHA would be better.

Reduce the steps down to maybe 2 pages and reduce that Q&A page to usename and password.  Rest they can get to post-sign up.

 

[coreyman]

Well I'll start by saying too many steps.

Hit main promo screen, then to agreement page, then to signup.

The signup page is 8 questions.... The last one about number of US presidents, well, that will have folks doinking in Google/similar search to determine.   A simple ### CAPTCHA would be better.

Reduce the steps down to maybe 2 pages and reduce that Q&A page to usename and password.  Rest they can get to post-sign up.

Great ideas! You know I didn't even think about all of that. I put the US president thing there so that bots couldn't join. What captcha method do you think I should use? Maybe I should put some facebook registration one button click thing as well?

 

[willie]

Site is unattractive because the pitch is so scammy.  Fill out surveys to earn domains?  Already suspicious.  Also not obviously stated is whether they're top level domains (who is paying for them?) or subdomains of the host domain (worthless).  All in all I wouldn't have spent more than 2 seconds looking at the page if it weren't for the thread.

 

[drmike]

Great ideas! You know I didn't even think about all of that. I put the US president thing there so that bots couldn't join. What captcha method do you think I should use? Maybe I should put some facebook registration one button click thing as well?

I hate CAPTCHA.  Find yourself a simple script that outputs numbers to images.   Numbers are far easier for humans to process.   Then just rotate the numbers from time to time  

Today everything is so ADD about viewer time span.  Process should be to collect minimal info and back fill it on their own later.  Not like you really need much of that info, if any outside of the username, password. 

 

[tonyg]

I read some of the posts and the answer as to why everyone stopped posting is pretty obvious...the site lacks meaniful content.

 

[drmike]

I'll throw in here that Google Ads are pretty much garbage too.  Rife with fraud.   Very expensive for uninspired word matches.   Have to go longtail to even attempt playing with such.

I'd never use Google Ad crap on things unless a hefty budget for such that could be wasted and the project survive.

Unsure how you stimulate a community at seed stage.  I haven't delved in by joining.  It's very hard to grow from seed and so much out there vying for people's time.

I'd be hitting up the freebie markets and folks prone to this sort of stuff.

 

[AuroraZero]

Drop some transparency on people and show you are for real. Make people believe in what you are doing like they have at other places. Make the sign up easier and just be real.

Also help people through the process and make your site about more then just free domains. Make tutorials and encourage people to interact with each other.

Most of all be in it for the long haul as @drmike has said it is hard to get things going. It may take a year or more to see anything.

 

[Darwin]

DDoS your competitors!

I am sorry, I had to throw the pun. I <3 vpsboard, but this topic was next LET's one.

 

[coreyman]

Site is unattractive because the pitch is so scammy.  Fill out surveys to earn domains?  Already suspicious.  Also not obviously stated is whether they're top level domains (who is paying for them?) or subdomains of the host domain (worthless).  All in all I wouldn't have spent more than 2 seconds looking at the page if it weren't for the thread.

1) The 'what are points worth' section on the front page tells you that you are getting top level domains.

2) You don't just fill out surveys to earn domains? It's right at the top of the page that you can 'post on the forums', how can I make this more clear for potential members?

I read some of the posts and the answer as to why everyone stopped posting is pretty obvious...the site lacks meaniful content.

I tried stirring up some conversation about happenings in the world wide news but noone wanted to chip in. What type of content should I be posting about?

 

[tonyg]

I tried stirring up some conversation about happenings in the world wide news but noone wanted to chip in. What type of content should I be posting about?

On one of the threads someone was asking what cloud services were and no one had an answer.

You would need to be the primary driving force in answering any of these types of questions.

Most importantly, as has been mentioned before, if the forum ever takes off, it will take time.

This is not "if you build it they will come".

 

[coreyman]

I tried stirring up some conversation about happenings in the world wide news but noone wanted to chip in. What type of content should I be posting about?

On one of the threads someone was asking what cloud services were and no one had an answer.

You would need to be the primary driving force in answering any of these types of questions.

Most importantly, as has been mentioned before, if the forum ever takes off, it will take time.

This is not "if you build it they will come".

I felt like I was answering too many of the forum members posts and so I stopped so that maybe they could generate some meaninful conversation on their own- then they all dissapeared, you are probably right on this one.

 

[drmike]

What is the existing conversation / forum topics?

News = politics and lots of folks shy from it.

If you have technical conversations and no one participates, probably not their expertise either.

A good moderator seeds things actively and suits things for the audience to some degree.

 

[coreyman]

What is the existing conversation / forum topics?

News = politics and lots of folks shy from it.

If you have technical conversations and no one participates, probably not their expertise either.

A good moderator seeds things actively and suits things for the audience to some degree.

I'll try to adapt the conversations more appropriately going forward. Also - I have implemented all the registration changes you pointed out. I removed those spammy looking advertisements from the forums(if any of you saw them)... I wasn't making money from them anyway.

If anyone else has any pointers I'm all ears!

 

[AThomasHowe]

An active forum in 2014 is probably among the hardest sites to properly build. It's tough to compete with the monopoly with online conversations that Reddit (and earlier Digg) and social networks like Facebook have.

I know that's not much use to you but when I was younger I used to use forums and try and start my own all the time. I wouldn't dare nowadays unless I already had a popular homepage or blog to launch it off the back of.

 

[coreyman]

An active forum in 2014 is probably among the hardest sites to properly build. It's tough to compete with the monopoly with online conversations that Reddit (and earlier Digg) and social networks like Facebook have.

I know that's not much use to you but when I was younger I used to use forums and try and start my own all the time. I wouldn't dare nowadays unless I already had a popular homepage or blog to launch it off the back of.

Hey I understand, and while those are valid points I think that forums fill a niche void that facebook and reddit and such do not. I actually hadn't even joined reddit up until last month and I'm 23 - yet I frequently join forums and participate.